Chapter 7: Giant’s Might / Titanomakhia

「Hmm...」

Turning a fragment of shattered brick around and around, I jot numbers into the book.
No matter how many times I run it, the numbers just won’t add up.

「What’s wrong?」

Threading a needle through colorful cloth, Nina asked without even looking my way.

「No, it’s just—there’s no way that wall should’ve crumbled from Ruful head‑butting it.」
「But it did, didn’t it?」
「Well, yeah, but...」

Ruful’s height is five meters and fifteen centimeters. We actually measured it, so that’s certain.
That’s roughly four times the size of a human girl around ten.

Then her weight isn’t four times—length, width, and height are each fourfold, so it’s four times four times four: sixty‑four times.
A ten‑year‑old child weighs about thirty kilos.
Which would put Ruful at roughly two thousand kilograms.
Two tons. A smallish elephant is about that.

It’s a terrifying mass, sure—but these bricks I made should withstand that much. In fact, when I prepared a rock I estimated at around two tons and dropped it against the wall, it didn’t budge.

「You were pelting it with stones and blasting it before that, weren’t you? It was already half‑broken.」
「I didn’t get that impression, though...」

I furrowed my brows at Nina’s words.
If that were the case, shouldn’t there at least have been a crack or two on the surface?
I still have a vivid image of that unscathed wall emerging from the smoke of Tia’s blast.

Could a wall that clean really have been crumbling from the inside only?

「I feel like we just had something like this happen—something absurd, or rather, the math just doesn’t add up...」
「The waterwheel?」
「Ah, that.」

Things that should move don’t. Things that shouldn’t break, do.
As phenomena they’re the exact opposite, but somehow I’m starting to feel they share a common cause.

「Come to think of it, it’s only natural the numbers don’t add up.」

Giants. Behemoths. Dragons.
Land animals in this world are simply too big.

Ruful is a child so she’s still manageable, but adult giants over ten meters tall are a dime a dozen.
Behemoths are larger still, and dragons—despite their bulk—fly.

Of course flight uses magic, but thinking it through, just standing and walking is strange enough. For that matter, having the same proportions while being four times a human’s size is already odd.

Which would mean Ruful’s body might be even heavier.

That said, there’s no way to weigh her directly—we can’t build a balance scale that would support that mass.

「So, what are you going to do?」
「I’m not sure...」

The university building doubles as a student dormitory. Even so, Ruful has been considerate and continues to sleep in the shed we built on the village outskirts.

「It’s cruel to keep treating only that child as different forever.」
「Yeah, I know...」

Since then, she hasn’t done anything like breaking a wall.

「But if she accidentally demolished some critical pillar and got herself buried alive, I couldn’t bear it.」
「That’d still be a lot better than what you’ve done.」

Snip—the thread parted under her penknife, and Nina flung the cloth at me with rough impatience.

Her latest hobby is embroidery. On red cloth in white thread is the figure of a dragon—exquisitely rendered. Honestly, whatever she does, she’s so good at it...

「...Wait.」

Seeing that image jogged a memory and I couldn’t help widening my eyes.

「What? Did something weird occur to you?」
「No... it’s just really well done.」

The delicate stitching captured every single scale and even a strand of wavering flame in meticulous detail.

「This might—work.」

It gave me a particular idea.


* * *


「Ruful. Could you try breaking this for me?」

In dragon form I had hauled out a boulder; at the sight, Ruful hunched down as if frightened.

「There’s no way this kid could do that.」

Watching that, Tia said, miffed.
At her high‑handed pronouncement, Ruful shrank her already large body even smaller.

「I don’t really get what we’re doing—」

Light Blue brushed back her hair languidly and turned her eyes to the rock.

「So I’m supposed to break this?」

She aimed her hand at the rock, and water welled up in her palm. With a flick, she cast it; the water swelled in an instant and became a sharp spear that streaked straight through the air.

But before it could scar the rock, it shattered midair into mist.
Yutaka had drawn his Hihiirokane sword and cut it down.

「Aniki told Ruful to do it.」

I can’t even imagine the level of skill it takes to move after an amorphous water spear and slice it down midair, but Yutaka looked unfazed as he addressed Light Blue.
Whether from surprise or something else, Light Blue’s well‑shaped face tightened ever so slightly.

「Ruful. I know you’re scared.」

Giants are, by nature, a rough and violent race.
Why someone born among them ended up this timid, I don’t know.
But—

「This is something you need to do to overcome that fear—your fear of your own strength.」

—But I do understand what she fears. I’m a coward too.
Ruful’s eyes flew wide and she looked up at me.

「It’s all right. I—I mean, a dragon, is stronger than you. You can go all out.」

Ruful’s gaze wavered in confusion... then she gave a small nod.
She slowly stepped up before the rock and looked down at her own hand.

Her palm was big enough to seat a person.
And yet that round, soft‑looking hand was, by any measure, still that of a small child.

Ruful slowly raised that hand.
No technique, nothing—just a simple blow like a toddler slapping down.

In that instant, the rock exploded and the earth shook.

The hard, massive boulder shattered as easily as an eggshell, fragments spraying all around. The shock didn’t stop there—it transmitted through the rock into the ground with a tremendous roar.

I hurried to spread my wings to shield everyone, but it was utterly unnecessary.
On my right, a lattice of thick roots caught the stone chips; on my left, a heavy wall of water blocked them. Nina—and Rin.

「Hey! Are you okay!?」

Shaking off the roots coiled around her with annoyance, Tia flew straight to Ruful.

「Y-yeah...」

The giant girl sat amid the crater she’d made, sprinkled all over with pebble shards and dust.

「Looks like no injuries.」

Even so, there wasn’t anything you could call a wound on her. When I took her hand, her skin was smooth and soft—it was hard to believe these hands had caused that much damage.

「Hey, Sensei! What are you making her do? That was dangerous!」
「Sorry, sorry. I had something I needed to check. I figured Ruful would be fine, but I made you worry.」

I bowed to Tia, who had thrown both hands up. In my current body, larger than a giant, it was easy to lose sight of a pixie that small.

「Mm... Tia always worries about me.」
「Wha— Like I’d worry about a brute your size! I’m saying I was the one in danger!」

Leaving Tia’s yelling aside, I turned back to Ruful.
I hadn’t made her smash the rock for nothing. I’d seen it—clearly.

The rock broke before her palm actually touched it.

「Your strength is like my flame. It’s built into your body and spills out whether you will it or not.」

As I spoke, I let a wisp of fire curl from my mouth for the first time in a while.
Lately I spend most of my time in human form, and I’d all but forgotten how much I used to struggle with this.
Nina chewed me out countless times for heaving fiery sighs.

To me, a breath is flame itself.
For Ruful, motion itself is destructive magic.

But hers is far stronger even than other giants’.
Even adult male giants don’t carry power like this.
Put simply, Ruful lives as if she were riding heavy machinery all the time.

「Which is exactly why it can be controlled.」

This time I spoke without venting flame.
I spent decades learning the trick, but now there’s no need for that kind of hardship.
Six hundred years in, I’ve begun to understand magic—just a little.

「Let’s call that power... yes. ‘Giant’s Might.’」

I ignored the comment from behind—“So literal.” Pipe down, Nina.

「Giant’s Might has two uses. One is as a spear to destroy things... the other is as a shield to protect you yourself.」

I brushed the stone chips from Ruful’s hair as I explained.
I’d only stroked her lightly, but I could feel a kind of barrier of force guarding her body.

「Concentrate it on the shield side only. Ask yourself to do that.」

Ruful looked at my face in confusion... then set her hand to her chest.

「Giant’s Might, inside me. Protect me. I... don’t want to hurt anyone anymore.」

Ruful chanted and stared intently at her own hand.
She was probably wondering whether it had actually taken effect.
Magic in this world doesn’t light up or make sounds on its own when it activates.

「Nina.」

Before I’d even finished saying her name, a flower popped into my hand.
A familiar white blossom from back when. My partner really is thoughtful—and has a good memory.

I shifted back to human form and set it on Ruful’s finger—thick as my whole palm.
If she pinched it with her power still uncontrolled, the tiny flower would be ground to powder at once.

It just fluttered in the breeze stirred by her laughter.